Children’s ADHD and Learning Disabilities Linked to Secondhand Smoke

A recent article “Secondhand Smoke Tied to ADHD and Learning Disabilities in Children” on the Medical News Today website reports the findings from a study by Zubair Kabir, Gregory N. Connolly, and Hillel R. Alpert that found a connection between children growing up with a smoker in their homes and the incidence of ADHD and Learning Disabilities. According to the article, “children exposed to secondhand smoke in the home appear to be at 50% higher risk of neurobehavioral disorders such as ADHD/ADD and learning disabilities compared to unexposed children.”

The analysis also noted several other findings:

The risk is higher for boys than for girls.

Poor children between 9 and 11 years of age are at the most risk.

If children were not exposed to secondhand smoke, it could prevent 274,000 children from developing these disorders.